Rafa Jódar comes back, saves two match points and beats Shapovalov in Cincinnati

The Spanish Rafa Jódar came back from 1-5 down in the third set, annulled two match points and triumphed 7-5, 4-6 and 7-5 against the Canadian Denis Shapovalov to advance to the third round of the Cincinnati Masters 1,000.

Jódar had lost it, down 1-5 in the third set after receiving medical attention for discomfort in his left leg, but he found a way to recover from the two disadvantage breaks and chained six consecutive games to seal an epic victory.

Everything happened on the Grandstand court in Cincinnati, where Jódar, world number eleven, also angered Shapovalov by twice interrupting a game in progress due to problems with his shoes.

In the second pause, which occurred at 3-5 in the third set, Jódar stopped the match for more than a minute and needed help from his father to fix one of his shoes, something that caused Shapovalov to react.

The 19-year-old from Madrid, the protagonist of an extraordinary season on the ATP circuit, found a way to balance the match and his three breaks against Shapovalov opened the way to the third round.

At the end of the match, Jódar apologized to Shapovalov, who reproached him for using the breaks due to problems with his shoes to drink water.